BRITAIN IN PALESTINE
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After hearing views from all parties, Peel decided that no truly representative government of the whole country was possible. The Jews were still in a minority but wouldn’t accept being partners in a national government with a majority of Arabs. And the Arabs would not accept unrestricted immigration of Jews until they became a majority. In an attempt to solve the problem, Peel suggested dividing the country into two separate states or – as the Arabs saw it – taking away half their land and giving it exclusively to Jews.
“The Arabs desire to revive the traditions of the Arab golden age. The Jews desire to show what they can achieve when restored to the land in which the Jewish nation was born. Neither of the two national ideals permits of combination in the service of a single State.”
– The Peel Commission
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Palestine before the First World War was made up of three provinces, or ‘sanjaks’, of the Ottoman Empire. It covered the area known in the west as the Holy Land, the land between the Mediterranean and the river Jordan. Every village and town in the entire area was populated by Palestinian Arabs. There were a few small Jewish communities dotted across the land, with the main concentrations in Jerusalem, Hebron, Haifa and Tiberias.
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